Listening natively across perceptual domains?

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Auditory Perception
• Cross-modal Perception

Background:

• Native language is known to influence the perception of other languages.
• The extent to which native language shapes the perception of nonlinguistic auditory and visual stimuli is less understood.
• Previous research suggests linguistic knowledge can modulate auditory perception, but cross-modal effects are unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether native language influences the grouping of nonlinguistic auditory and visual stimuli.
• To determine if native listening effects observed with linguistic stimuli transfer to nonlinguistic domains.
• To explore the role of universal grouping principles versus language-specific prosody in auditory perception.

Main Methods:

• Speakers of Italian, Turkish, and Persian were tested on their grouping of alternating linguistic (syllables) and nonlinguistic (tones, visual shapes) stimuli.
• Stimuli varied in either frequency or duration.
• Perceptual grouping patterns were analyzed across different languages and stimulus types.

Main Results:

• Strong native listening effects were found for linguistic stimuli, with Italian speakers grouping them differently from Turkish and Persian speakers.
• However, speakers of all three languages exhibited identical perceptual biases when grouping nonlinguistic auditory and visual stimuli.
• No transfer of native listening effects was observed across auditory domains or perceptual modalities.

Conclusions:

• Shared perceptual biases for nonlinguistic stimuli are likely governed by universal grouping principles.
• Linguistic differences in perception are attributed to prosodic variations between languages.
• Native language primarily influences linguistic perception, with limited impact on nonlinguistic auditory or visual perception.